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Throughput of containerized cargo in Latin America falls 0.9% in 2016

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL) released its latest ranking this week, which shows a loss of activity in the ports of the region in 2016, which represents the biggest loss since 2009.

On its “Maritime and Logistics Profile,” the UN body revealed an activity deceleration, shaped by five countries mainly: Brazil (-4.4%), Panama (-9.1%), Colombia (-3.6%), Argentina (-6.1%) and The Bahamas (-14.3%).

On the other hand, there are the nations that contributed to raising the total volume: Mexico (3.2% rise), Chile (4.8%), Peru (8.4%), Ecuador (4.5%), the Dominican Republic (8.3%), Guatemala (8.8%), Costa Rica (7.3%) and Uruguay (9.5%).

The total volume of activity in 2016 reached approximately 47.5 million TEU, which means a drop of 0.9%. Globally, the container port traffic also experienced a decline in activity in 2016. The volumes in the world’s top 100 container ports rose just 1.8% in 2016, to 555.6 million TEU, according to Alphaliner.

The causes of growth, deceleration or decline in activity in individual ports vary, says the report. For example, , the ports of Callao in Peru (8.1%), Guayaquil in Ecuador (6.9%), Caucedo in the Dominican Republic (11.1%), and San Antonio (10.0%) and Lirquén (60.1%) in Chile, showed the highest rises in volume due to the success of their projects and their commercial management.

In contrast, the sharpest declines in volume of port activity were recorded by the terminals of Buenos Aires in Argentina (-5.7%), Kingston in Jamaica (-5.2%), Freeport in The Bahamas (-14.3%), Santos in Brazil (-6.9%), Cartagena in Colombia (-4.0%), and Colón (-8.9%) and Balboa (-9.2%) in Panama